Pocket Parks Publishing

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This is my favorite time of year in New York City. The buds are starting to come in on the trees, the crocuses and daffodils are popping up after their long winter’s nap, and the sun comes out more often than not to add to the warm, spring temperatures. My advice to anyone new to the city is to set out on foot to an area you’ve never visited. If you’re not that adventurous or you feel unsure of an area, head to Central Park. You will find tons of tourists there on a nice day, but if you head uptown a little on the East- or the Westside, you will discover the locals. Take a moment to sit on one of the many benches up near the Armory on Fifth Avenue or on the Eastside, find a seat near the 72nd Street Transverse and people watch or better yet, head into the park from that entrance and enjoy a picnic or some time with a good book if it’s a nice day outside.

Central Park, while not a pocket park by any means, is one of my favorite places. During summer weekends, you can walk from hill to hill and find a different activity in each section. My husband and I once walked to meet my brother and listen to a guitarist, but before we found him, we watched a roller skating club skate to someone’s playlist, a kid’s craft event, a small informational event for organic foods, and a quiet area where people were reading and napping on their blankets.​Enjoy the park during this time of new life (dare I say it?) after winter’s exit.

New York City public gardens are yet another thing that makes me love New York City. I discovered them when I was researching my book, BEST Pocket Parks of NYC, and had the idea to include them in my book. I decided against it after discovering Grace Tankersley’s book, Community Gardens of the East Village. She listed 39 gardens in the East Village alone and then told me there are probably hundreds throughout Greenwich Village alone. With over 530 POPS to explore already, I figured I would leave the gardens to her. Finding her book, however, put these little public gardens on my radar.

In December 2015, 596 Acres , a group dedicated to preserving and protecting public gardens in New York City, announced that gardens slated for development by New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) had been transferred New York City Parks Department to be officially preserved as public gardens. That’s 36 gardens with 27 of them in Brooklyn alone!

While I encourage you to pick up my book and explore the NYC POPS this spring, I think a great companion would be Tankersley’s book or use this online map to find your favorite public gardens in​New York City.

Pocket Parks Publishing publishes guides to pocket parks and public spaces in the U.S. beginning with our first guide, BEST Pocket Parks of NYC. These little green spaces in the middle of the city pop up as you are walking around, but no one knew their history or why they were built other than readers of a text book. My guide gives history and information about the best pocket parks in New York City and soon we will add a guide to London’s pocket parks.

People have reached out to me from all over the world telling me about their city. I hope to include guides to Washington, DC, Los Angeles, CA, Barcelona, Spain and even Sydney, Australia. All of these places see the necessity for green space in the middle of their bustling city. I will find the best of them and put them in city-specific guides to emulate my New York City guide creating a bigger company than I have now inspired by guides such as Not For Tourists or Passporter.

LinkedIn will help me gain sales by spreading the word to this niche market of adventurous travelers and already has. LinkedIn is where I receive many of my emails telling me about the best cities. It helps direct me to the most public space-rich locations around the world and led me to London’s Pocket Park Program which was completed in August 2015. The city granted individuals and organizations money to renovate or create small parks in places that have been unused until then. Their organizers are giving me the information and images to produce the London book because they would rather not pay for a book themselves. This is a win-win situation for me!

With the increased interest in green issues, my small publishing company can only grow and when it does, I will be able to hire more contractors to write more of the planned guides. My goal is to outearn my husband after his diagnosis of multiple myeloma last year, so I am a motivated business owner who has won several pitch plan contests within the military entrepreneur community of which I am a member as a military spouse.

I hope you find my niche business as exciting as I do! Thank you for the opportunity to enter the contest.

This is a great time of year to go into NYC to visit pocket parks. I am revising BEST Pocket Parks of NYC to include more parks and headed into the city yesterday. This is the pocket park next to Museum of Modern Art's gift shop on West 53rd Street between 5th and 6th Avenues. It actually passes between 52nd and 53rd.

For a limited time, save $2.00 on your copy of BEST Pocket Parks of NYC in preparation of those warm, sunny days ahead. Visit CreateSpace.com and type in this code (J8DY5WHP) for your discount. And if you visit one of these parks, take a photo and send it to me with the date of your visit and any (clean!) message you want to display with your photo. We may feature you on our blog! It's a great FREE way to promote your business or product.

While you're there, you can check out a few pocket parks along the route! If you go, please post a photo of you in the park for a free copy of my book, BEST Pocket Parks of NYC. One entry will be chosen at random on November 30th. Good luck! Now here are a few of my favorites:

1166 Avenue of the Americas (between 45th and 46th Streets)

Paley Park (53rd between 5th and Madison)

Continental Illinois Building (53rd between 5th and Madison just east of Paley Park)

I was in the city on a research trip last week and to meet with Joe Daly of Summit Video Productions. We will be filming a piece about pocket parks in New York City in the coming weeks. Joe told me he had been by 520 Madison Avenue which displayed a piece of the Berlin wall in its pocket park located on the 53rd Street side of the building just down from Paley Park. We strolled by it after our meeting and it has been moved inside the lobby of the building. One of the guards told Joe it was moved inside to avoid continued wear and tear.

It's still very cool, but the colors pale in the indoor lighting. Go visit at 520 Madison Avenue and 53rd Street. Afterward go about two doors west and you will find the famous Paley Park.